I don’t think I hear this from any of you folks, but you know people say, “Let go and let God.” And you know we can talk about abiding in Christ and we have to be careful that we don’t see abiding in Christ as just this kind of passive approach to the Christian life. Like you know, “Yes I’m just going to you know sit here and I am going to mystically abide in Christ and I’m praying for Him, and He’s gonna kill the lust. He’s going to kill the passions. He’s going to put to death sin, and I am just… I’m praying and I’m abiding.” That is not what’s happening.
Remember how it is in Scripture? Remember how it always is? David takes the battle field before the head is off the giant. It almost seems like the Lord is disgusted with Moses when He tells him, “What are you doing standing there praying to Me. Go!” They go and the sea opens up before them. You remember how it was with the priests, when they got to the Jordan? “No don’t stand back a thousand yards and watch the waters recede. You put your foot in the water and then the waters receded.” It is not, “Peter you should just stay in the boat and expect that Jesus is going to cause you to float out and onto the water.” Now you see the miracle happened – Peter jumps out of the boat. This this is the Christian life. And that’s why I just felt like… you know what we’ve been going for quite a while, and here we are, and he’s talking about power. And I am recognizing this power that he is talking about directly relates to these imperatives that are coming and I didn’t want to leave that untouched as were diving into this today. Scripture is plain and straight-forward brethren! Put to death what is earthly in you! Don’t wait, don’t procrastinate, don’t make excuses, put it to death. This is no vain call for you to do what you cannot do. This is what you say to people.
Look you say these kinds of radical statements to people. It’s the kind of thing that you say to people that are convinced of the truth that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have an exceeding greatness of the power of God that is directed towards them that is connected… that is part of the power that raised Christ from the dead. It’s an expression of it. If not the very thing, if not the very power that raised Him from the dead. Like I said last week, pulls all of us up. We are pulled up with Him. We’ve been made alive with Him. We’ve been raised with Him! We’re seated in heavenly places with Him, in Christ! This is the reality.
People who really recognize that, then you come along and you say radical things to them like this. “Wow there’s such a power at work in my life.” That doesn’t mean you go around feeling some pulsating power going through you. We live by faith brethren. We live by faith in these realities. Not by feeling. Not by sight. You see, if you wait for the electrical current to flow through you and you feel the blessing, then you don’t move. It’s by faith. The first… the whole book, but these first three chapters (of Ephesians), are for your faith. So that when you get to the imperatives you move in faith, you’re trusting.
Excerpt taken from the full sermon, Church, The Reigning Christ is For You
